Man who sought to clear uncle's name in 1941 shooting of Glynn County policeman has died

Dan Turner, 86, wanted to clear the name of his uncle Nub Turner before he died

Terry.Dickson@jacksonville.com - 2/23/14 - Dan Turner stands beside U.S. 17 in front of the wooded lot where Nub's Camp, an old tourist camp, once stood. When he was 13, Turner saw his uncle Nub Turner and two Glynn County police officers die in a shootout with each other. He wants to set the record straight. (Florida Times-Union, Terry Dickson)

BRUNSWICK | A man who had sought to clear his uncle’s name in the December 1941 shooting deaths of two Glynn County police officers has died, a family member said.

Dan Turner, 86, died July 30 of stomach cancer at his Arkansas home and was buried Aug. 5 in Brunswick beside Nub Turner, the uncle who took him in after his father and mother died, said his grand-niece, June Skipper of New Port Richey.

Turner was 13 and one of a few witnesses in a shootout at Nub’s Camp, a tourist stop on U.S. 17 on Blythe Island that took the lives of three people: his uncle, Assistant Chief George Anton Krauss, 49, and officer James C. Coleman, 48.

Plaques on the wall at Glynn County Police headquarters honor Krauss and Coleman as victims, but Turner said they were anything but.

The account at the police station doesn’t name Nub Turner. It says the two officers were investigating a report of a disturbance at Nub’s Camp when an assailant opened fire on Krauss. The pistol round went through Krauss killing him instantly and then struck Coleman. Though wounded, Coleman returned fire and fatally wounded the attacker, the account says.

“It’s a damned lie,’’ Turner told the Times-Union. “I was standing right there. I saw it all.”

Krauss first argued with his uncle and then tried to hit him with a blackjack, Turner said. Krauss then fired the first shot at his uncle, but it missed and hit Coleman in the stomach, Turner said.

The wounded Coleman then shot his uncle, who returned fire first on Coleman and then Krauss, hitting him several times, Dan Turner said. Shot twice and out of ammo, his uncle collapsed and Krauss managed to walk over and empty his pistol into his uncle as he lay on the ground, Dan Turner said.

Krauss and Nub Turner died at the scene but Coleman was hospitalized and died later.

Dan Turner acknowledged his uncle killed Krauss but said Coleman died from being shot by Krauss, not from the shot his uncle fired into the wrist of his gun hand.

Turner met with the Glynn County Commission and asked them to take down the plaques honoring Krauss and Coleman, but they’re still there.

With her uncle’s death, Skipper said she will fulfill a promise to keep up the fight.

“He was so adamant about the plaques being taken down and the truth being known,’’ she said.

The coroner’s finding that Krauss died of multiple gunshot wounds gives lie to the plaque that says he died of a single wound.

Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said Thursday the plaques will remain, and that there’s no proof to back up Dan Turner’s account.

After his uncle’s death, Dan Turner said, his Aunt Georgia tried to keep the tourist camp going but corrupt local officials refused to give her the liquor license she needed.

Still a teenager, Dan Turner left home, caught a ride to Portsmouth, Va., where he ultimately went to work in a shipyard.

He spent the rest of his working life as a tugboat captain and deep-sea diver with his own boat and crew. He worked on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and other big projects. He was the boat captain for dives on the wreck of the Andrea Doria.